McLaughlin, McGrath Earn Weekly Honors

One of this week’s iBerkshires.com/Southwestern Vermont Health Care Athletes of the Week is making a strong comeback from a long layoff. The other had a shorter than typical break from their fall sport of choice.

 

Kayla McGrath and Drury girls soccer team are picking up right where they left off in April’s “Fall 2” season.

 

The Blue Devils, who won the Berkshire County South Division title in the abbreviated spring campaign, are off to a 6-0 start this fall, shutting out all six of their opponents along the way.

 

McGrath scored twice in Drury’s league-title clinching win last April. Five months later, she continues to be one of the top finishers in the county with 16 goals in six outings, averaging nearly a hat trick per game.

 

Last week, she scored the game-winner in perhaps Drury’s toughest tests to date, a 2-0 win over Hopkins Academy. Then she scored nine in the team’s next two contests.

 

On Friday alone, McGrath scored more goals -- six -- than a couple of Berkshire County teams have scored in the first three weeks of the season.

 

Wahconah golfer Pat McLaughlin has led his team to a 7-1 start this season. This week, he medaled in two of the team’s three matches, breaking par for nine holes in one of his outings at Wyantenuck Country Club, where last October he took the medal at the county championship.

 

Usually, top high school golfers are able to hit the ground running each August after spending the spring and summer working on their games. But McLaughlin had a different “off season” this year due to a bout of Lyme disease last winter that affected his joints.

 

“This was my first time walking with my bag,” he said after Wahconah’s season opener at Forest Park Country Club on Aug. 30.

 

“To be honest, two weeks ago, I wasn’t even sure if I was going to be able to play this season. I just started playing [at the end of August].”

 

As the end of September nears, McLaughlin and his Wahconah teammates are one of the top teams in the county, and they will face another big test this Friday, Oct. 1, when they host Mount Greylock, who they beat by five strokes earlier this year at Waubeeka Golf Links.

 

The iBerkshires.com Athlete of the Week is sponsored by Southwestern Vermont Health Care.